25 June 2010

Awwwww, my baby is 10 months old today. Stop that little guy! Stay a baby for a short while longer. This morning we had to be out the door by 8 am. Justin's car is finally getting a new belt so the entire city won't know when he is off to work or home for lunch due to the loud screeching. Since we were out at such an early time for us, I popped my vintage wagon and some vintage looking clothes for the kids and stopped for a photo shoot on the way home. My excellent friend Catherine let me borrow the dress Amelia wore and I found Phillip's outfit on eBay. With the tall grass the photos can be ageless if needed! I will post more of the kids together and Amelia later.

Phillip probably weighs about 20 pounds now, not chunky just pleasant and perfect. His top chompers are coming in so the little guy is a bit grumpy of late. He earned several new nicknames over the past month: phillip-buster, pheel's very dough boy, and squirrel. He loves to find little things on the floor and eat them. I find strange stuff in his diapers all the time. I swear the floor is mostly clean! The strangest thing I found was a piece of Styrofoam and a length of yarn (green, at least he has good taste in color). We are introducing finger foods. He love macaroni and cheese, peas, shredded cheese, bananas, fruits, and dry cereal. Some games he engages in now are "So Big" and peek-a-boo. The little monkey shakes his head "No" all the time and says "no, no, no, no" when warned away from something. Just last week he started to duck his head into my shoulder when he meets a stranger. Oh, I love that stage! The trust these small babies manifest is so heart-warming. He can also say, "Ma-ma" and know it means me, not just a babble anymore. What a delight!

He loves his sister so much. She blows on his toes, which he loves. He has a very special laugh I only hear when Amelia is being silly. Watching them interact just about bursts my heart at the seams with love and joy. Justin and I are super blessed.

24 June 2010

Some photos of my most recent creations from the past couple weeks. I totally cranked out the freezer paper stencil shirts! Five shirts completed in less than an hour! Roxanne let me borrow her cricut machine, she had a totally cute cartridge, A Child's Year, where I found all the shapes. I remade the lemon skirt for this summer by adding a waist panel to lengthen it and made a new matching polo shirt. Two weeks ago Crafter Hours had a skirt week, while browsing her site I found an irresistible "Dresden Plate" skirt, using quilting techniques. I am in love with the scalloped panels. I only got pictures of 7 hats out of the 12 made during our Utah trip. Three of them are my new hats, made to replace ones I gave away (a brown, white, and teal). Jessica finally gave me an excuse to try out a bootie pattern since she just had a baby girl. Phillip thought they were fun to play with and wear. Poor little guy is resorted to my male model for female textiles. Don't you just love the gray hat? It is my newest pattern, delish! I made a fun outfit for John and Courtenay's little guy, a hat, initial shirt, and monkey pants. Totally forgot to take a picture!

I am laughing at the irony. Since my sewing machine is now in Utah and I, in Nebraska, five orders came for hat and onesie baby gifts. Only two orders in months and now five! I need a machine, stat! Too bad I can't sew with my new serger. First I need to figure it out. Grandma lost the manuals, the CD, and the accoutrement's for the machine. I am relieved that the internet provided a semi-legible copy of the manual. That is a good start.

Phillip is starting to explore his surroundings with gusto! I constantly find him wedged under furniture, stuck under tables, and inside my shelves. Amelia was not an explorer, so this is sort of new for us. When he first starts to unseat himself onto his tummy, he does this funny hand pat move on the floor. Cracks me up. He can now re-sit himself from his tummy too and rocks on his knees. His preferred method of locomotion is to get on his knees and launch himself forward. During dinner hour he can be found slobbering all over my feet, tickles like crazy!

My little garden has made a total comeback. All the plants are at least 4-6 inches tall. My lettuces are taking over, we are enjoying yummy salads with different types of lettuce. I wish lettuce and tomatoes came at the same time. After 8 months of meaning to fill up our emergency water supply, I finally accomplished that task. It took two long hoses from the outside spigot to run down into the basement in order to fill the containers. While I was tightening the hose connections Phillip explored the garage floor. He was black with dirt from his toes to his face. I took a couple pictures before the worst of it came. We compounded the mess with watermelon and homemade yogurt pops. Both kids were dirty birdies.

I am finally proud to announce that my craft room is clean. It made sense to put everything back in order so I can make a new mess. The basement got some TLC which required several runs to the Salvation Army to donate stuff. The rest of our week was busy with cleaning, gardening, swimming at the pool, walks, piano lessons, and general silliness.

22 June 2010

Phew! We made it home, obviously, in one piece, or rather four pieces. We started our journey home early at 3:30 am. By 11:30 we were in Cheyenne! I was so glad we hit the mid-point at breakfast, eating at the same place we ate on the journey out. Justin wanted to look at a western store in Cheyenne so we stopped for a diversion. Amelia has a fun pair of pink boots, a new hat, play pistols, Phillip a hat, and me, my first cowgirl hat. It is pretty cute! Justin didn't get anything. Oh, the irony. While I nursed Phillip, Justin and Amelia went on a walk. They noticed a free horse ride around historic Cheyenne. We all went on a 30 minute ride learning about the local history. That was a super fun activity. Plus it felt awesome to stretch our legs. Nothing is better than home. Everything was in order and no huge catastrophic hail damaged my garden again. I actually really enjoyed getting home around 3:30 because we got unpacked, cleaned up, and ready for Sunday. Amelia delighted us by wearing her pistols, red boots, and hat around the side-yard shooting ants. That kept me in stitches.

After my 6th night of little sleep I was falling apart at the seams. It was time to return home and get a full night's sleep! I made Anson and Phillip coordinating shirts, so we HAD to get some pictures of them together. Little Anson did not think this was a great idea, Phillip just sat there as usual smiling at my big black appendage. Managed to get one photo of them both being silly. While my camera was out and busy I snagged the other little ones running around for more photos. Mason is HARD to pin down for pictures. Little Phillip just loves Mason and vice versa. Mason was pleased to have his picture taken...if Phillip was in it with him. What cutie patootie boys. Five silly girls sat down for me and cheesed it big time. Libby is turning into a lovely young lady! Look at that red hair! I have some gorgeous nieces and nephews. We partially packed our belongings then I left to go run some shopping errands. I stopped at Toys R Us for more educational games. Amelia and I are going to have a homework hour each day until the fall when we will start a joy school. I found a little man outfit for Phillip of a tie, white shirt, and khaki pants. So cute! My last stop was to pick up my sewing machine. I specifically told the repair man my machine HAD to be ready by Thursday. I called the store both two and one week(s) before our trip to make sure they did not have a waiting time. It was not at the store. I nearly got mad but told them I was leaving the state for home and possibly would be back in a month. Grrrr. Forced sabbatical from sewing, ironic now that I have a new serger. Grandma Baerwaldt let me buy her practically new serger on Tuesday. Went with a sewing machine and came back with a serger. My exciting news is that I ordered my new camera, two lenses, and filters from Pictureline on my drive home. Soon my new Canon 7D will be at my doorstep. Cannot wait.

We let the kids take a nap in the car while I went to Walmart for chips, dip, and to readjust my sunglasses. Then Justin actually let me browse JoAnn's for a minute. I was running critically low on sewing machine needles, thread, brown yarn, and other basics. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with the Lances. John wanted a BBQ dinner for his birthday. He made hot dogs and roasted corn. Everyone else chipped in a dish or two. James and Miekka made some jalapeno poppers, goodness, those were good. John is a funny guy! He always has an amused look on his face as if he knows the joke the rest of us is missing. He will be an awesome daddy soon. I love to watch my brothers interact with all the kids. So much fun. John had a berry crisp for his cake with ice cream. Little Lia is about the cutest little toddler ever with the perfect amount of chub and smiles. Seth lost his first top tooth at the party. He is growing up fast. Hopefully, I can come back to photograph baby Lance and visit with my side of the family more.

21 June 2010

Wednesday we all had a down day. Most everyone was plain tuckered out. It was rainy and gloomy so we stayed inside and watched movies, read, and of course played.

Thursday morning Justin, Amelia, Phillip, and I drove down to Draper to Miekka's mother's home. Mary and Dorrel live in an amazing loft type home. It was a garage-ma-haul, but is now a home. Amy, Miekka's sister, had a baby girl about a month ago. She let me play photographer with little Annika. Annika fought sleep but eventually succumbed to the powers of a vacuum cleaner running and a warm hot pad. She let me reposition her about 6 times! Yes! More of those images to come.

We met up with the rest of the Calls at BYU later on that afternoon. Amelia eventually noticed the huge Y on the hill. She's heard a lot about BYU so when she saw the Y, it all came together as, Big-Y-U. BYU, is simply a big Y. Tickled my funny bone to no end. Spenser's girls and Reagan are die hard BYU fans. We started at the Bean Museum, then walked over to the bookstore. After ice cream at the creamery (super delish), and running around the quad we went back to our cars. All that took a couple hours and drained my energy juice right out of me. Justin totally hurt my dampered feelings by saying that we don't communicate well over directions. Funny thing, we both had our smart phones and the same directions. His snaps into a window thing so he can see the map, mine doesn't. My lack of sleep made me extra sensitive. Silly me. We headed to Sarah and Josh's home. Sarah is one of my most awesome friends ever. She made some delish waffles for dinner with fresh fruit. I delivered her huge mounted photo ordered last week. Then we talked until it was way too late. Man, I miss that girl. On our way home Amelia piped up from the back, "Aunt Charity's house up and walked away!...with my cousins in it!" She was very happy once we arrived to Charity's house and it was still there. She looked at the house across the street and exclaimed, "That house is serious, let's go to the party house!"

Scot and Raquel recently purchased a new home and were able to watch most of the construction phase. They moved in a couple months ago. We all journeyed up there to check out their new digs in Smithfield. Amelia decided to toss her breakfast right after we entered Logan. I barely had time to stick a cup under her chin before she chucked. She had three false alarms before this. Poor Ellie and Renee both had a nasty flu bug. Laura stayed home with Renee and little Anson for the day. We think Amelia's symptoms came per carsickness. Raquel has their new home prettily decorated. They have a magnificent view of the entire north valley. All the kids had a blast picking wild flowers, skating, biking, and playing with toys. My headache was still going strong much to my chagrin. The girls were so funny picking the flowers. Each found the best basket available to fill with flowers. I think Ellie stole the show when she found a shopping cart to pile her flowers in. Emma is about the cutest girl ever with the bluest eyes I've ever seen.

Grandpa Call treated all the kids to awesome kid's meals at McD's for lunch. Amelia is still to chicken to wander in the play areas, she watched her cousins from afar. I must admit a love affair with McD's diet and regular coke mixed together. It is hard to stay away from that devil juice.

Next we were off to the Fun Dome (or whatever it's called) to play in a soft tunneled/slide house thing. Pretty much take the McD's play area and multiply by three. Amelia loved the shake your booty video arcade next to the play area. I finally convinced her to enter the play area. She followed me around whimpering most the time. I think we went down one twisty slide together. I managed to slip away for a moment to check out DownEast Outfitters for some new undershirts.

While everyone else went home we stayed to visit my grandparents in Wellsville. My poor Grandpa is not doing so well, he needed some serious cheering up. I am not sure we helped much, but having two cute kids to cuddle seemed to lift his spirits a smidgen. My Aunt Mary is in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease. I nearly cried when we visited for a couple minutes. She seemed to be doing better than I anticipated but is still in a lot of pain. I think seeing our kids made her day as well. Grandma B and I made spaghetti for dinner, Amelia's favorite. Plate lickin' good! This year my grandma got 8 hens and a rooster. We watched the birds peck and scratch around for quite some time. I enjoyed watching them as much as tropical fish in a tank.